Almost Seems Like Old Times for Angels

This time last year, the Angels were wilting in the American League West, their once-huge lead shrinking--and their agony growing--with each September day.

But despite suffering one of the worst collapses in baseball history late last season, Angel first baseman J.T. Snow finds himself pining for those days of infamy.

“Even under those circumstances, it was a lot more fun than this,” Snow said. “At least we were still in the thick of things, and every game had playoff implications. I’ll take that any day.”

This is what the Angels took Saturday: another loss in another meaningless game in a meaningless month. The Kansas City Royals’ 8-5 victory in front of 17,174 in Kauffman Stadium was the Angels’ sixth consecutive loss, and their 15th in 19 games.

The Angels, 1-8 on a 10-game road trip that mercifully ends today, were picked by many to win the AL West, but they appear destined for last place. Instead of battling the Seattle Mariners or Texas Rangers for the division title, they’re simply struggling to find motivation.

“You have to take pride in yourself and your game,” said Snow, who had an RBI double in the sixth inning Saturday and hit his 16th homer in the eighth.

“I can’t come to the park and say we have 13 games left, let’s play out the string. You’ve got to try to dig down, get something out of everything. You owe it to yourself, to the organization, to the people who come watch you play.”

Royal ace Kevin Appier, who has the fourth-best earned-run average (3.45) in the league, wasn’t as sharp as usual, but his eight-inning, nine-hit, four-run, eight-strikeout effort was good enough to beat the Angels.

Jason Dickson (1-3) gave up four runs on eight hits in six innings, but the bullpen tandem of Mike Holtz and Mark Eichhorn let a one-run game slip away in the seventh, when the Royals scored four runs on two hits and five walks, two of them intentional, to take an 8-3 lead.

“We ran into a pretty good pitcher today, but if we hold [the lead] to one run, you never know what can happen,” Manager John McNamara said. “What it all came down to was the bullpen didn’t do its job.”

The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the third when Darin Erstad singled, Jim Edmonds walked and Chili Davis singled to right. But the Royals put together five singles in a three-run fourth, with Mike Sweeney, David Howard and Jose Offerman knocking in runs.

Mike Macfarlane’s semi-controversial homer in the fifth made the score 4-1. Erstad crashed into the wall in the left-field corner in an attempt to catch Macfarlane’s drive at the foul pole.

Third-base umpire Brian O’Nora initially ruled fan interference, but then twirled his hand to indicate home run, a call that stood despite McNamara’s objection.

“I knew it was fair, my only question was whether it was out of the park,” McNamara said. “But both the third-base ump and the second-base ump said it was over the fence when the fan caught it.”

Doubles by Jack Howell and Snow and Todd Greene’s RBI single pulled the Angels to within 4-3 in the sixth, but the Royals put the game out of reach with their four-run seventh, which included Macfarlane’s two-run single and Bob Hamelin’s bases-loaded walk.